Lingering Symptoms
by Cattarang
Summary: Enrolled as an SFIT undergrad, Aria hoped things would settle into a nice normal. But Hiro begins to grow distant & reclusive after the theft of his robotics project data, while a new threat to the city emerges, one that keeps BH6 balancing on a razor's edge. And this time, not even Aria's powers can save them. T for language and violence, Hiro x OC, Sequel to 'Side Effect: M'
1. Chapter One - Video Chat

"Ah, hey, sorry. I didn't mean to make you wait on me."

"No worries, I'm just studying. Not anything really important."

"I hate to keep you waiting, though."

"Seriously, forget about it. You're the one with an actual life; I'm just here, stagnating until I can get my associates degree and transfer."

"Ha, well, there might not be anything left for you to transfer to." Aria was tapping her pen against her textbook as she videochatted with Hiro, but let it drop when he pressed his palms to his eyes and slumped over on his desk.

"What do you mean?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together.

"We were broken into this weekend," Hiro said, looking up at her through the webcam. Aria covered her mouth with her hand as she gasped, shocked. Someone had broken into SFIT?

"Not the lab…?" she asked, but Hiro nodded, affirming her fear. "Oh, Hiro, what was stolen?"

"A lot." He looked absolutely rundown. "Spent the whole day with the cops, cataloguing everything that was missing. Tons of undergrad projects, most of Honey's supply of chemicals, a bunch of Gogo's spare maglev wheels, and my hard drive, among much more." He pinched the bridge of his nose.

"No…not the Beta Series data?" He nodded silently, and Aria felt her stomach drop. "You have it backed up, right?"

"Yeah, but if someone's running around with my unlicensed data, they can mod it all they want and publish it as their own." He shook his head, black hair falling in his eyes. "The best we can hope for is to track any knockoffs that pop up at expos and cons, that might lead us to the culprits."

"Hiro, I'm so sorry," Aria whispered, knocked off guard by this sudden development. She and Hiro had videochatted just yesterday and everything was just perfect, but now… "I wish I could be there to help. Are you and Big Hero 6 gonna try and track anything?"

"Yeah, but the trail's pretty cold. Not much for us to go off of." He looked up, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips. "Wish you could help us, too. Big Hero 6 could use it's 'plus one' again." Smiling back, Aria sighed heavily. She hadn't donned her hero suit in over a year, since she'd moved back to Los AngelOsaka. She was enrolled in her local community college, working towards her associate's degree, in hopes of one day making it to SFIT, to be closer to Hiro and the gang. She was no computer genius, but her experiences with botched biomedical testing has given her a thirst for improving the systems. She hoped to one day graduate with a degree in biomedical engineering, though that day was far, far in the future. Right now, she needed to just pass 100 level chemistry.

"I'd be rusty," she said, leaning her cheek in one hand. "I haven't really used my powers in a while; I think the last time was to keep a soda can from tipping off the coffee table."

"You'd have plenty of time to practice here," Hiro said, cracking the first grin of the night. "How far along are you in your classes? You're not gonne keep my waiting too much longer, right?"

"Two more quarters," Aria said, chuckling slightly. "One more if I qualify for SFIT's summer program."

"Yeah, I don't think the girlfriend of Hiro Hamada is gonna have to worry about being accepted into the SFIT summer program." He gave her a sarcastic look, and she wished she could punch him in the shoulder.

"I don't wanna get in just because I'm your girlfriend," she said. "I want to get in because I'm good enough."

"Well, you are good enough," he reassured her. "And even if they reject you, I still want you to move to San Fransokyo. Its torture here without you. I never realized just how insufferable it is to be around Honey and Wasabi when I can't be around my own girlfriend!" This caused her to laugh out loud, but Hiro looked serious. "I'm not joking," he said, pouting, "it's terrible!"

"Well, if I can't get into SFIT, there are other options for school there, I guess. I dunno. We'll see." Falling silent, the two sat there, somewhat awkwardly. Aria and Hiro had only just begun to be comfortable referring to each other as boyfriend/girlfriend, but things could still get awkward between them. Aria was still technically a teenager, after all, at 19. She hadn't matured too much in the year they'd been long-distance dating.

"Hey," Hiro said, finally breaking the silence.

"What?"

"I love you." Surprised by the bluntness of the statement, but not the content, Aria blushed, and started fumbling her words.

"Oh…Hiro, you know I love you too…" Looking away, Hiro laughed from the other end of the call, and she blushed harder. Damn him for being so cute! "Go to bed, boy-genius, you're getting delirious!"

"I'm always delirious," he countered, "deliriously in love-"

"Stooop!" She couldn't handle how cheesy he was being, and she knew he was doing it on purpose to get under her skin. They continued teasing each other for a while back and forth, until Aria forced Hiro to hang up after the fourteenth yawn in a five minute span. Closing her laptop, she tried to wipe the giddy smile off her face, but found it impossible.

"One more quarter," she mumbled to herself, as she climbed into bed. "One more quarter, and then I get to move…"


	2. Chapter Two - Reunion

"What flavor is this?" Hiro inspected the cake Honey Lemon had presented him with, eyebrows drawing together.

"Lemon, just like you asked," Honey chirped, setting the intricately decorated cake on the cake stand in the middle of the Hamada dining table. Hiro followed, staring nervously at it.

"It's pink," he said, distrusting such a fancy-looking cake. He was always startled by Honey Lemon's talents; it was easy to forget how girly she was, what with all the volatile chemicals she worked with, but she really was quite good at making things fancy and girly. It seemed cake decorating fell into her wide repertoire of talents.

"It's 'frosted' pink, Hiro," she corrected, taking her cross body bag off and tossing it onto the couch. He didn't look like he believed her, and she rolled her eyes. "Trust me, it's lemon."

"That's her favorite flavor, is all," Hiro continued, still eying the cake warily, but deciding Honey was right. "I just want everything to be perfect."

"Sweety, I love you," Aunt Cass said, carrying in a tray of her famous 'burn-your-tongue-off' hot wings, "but you're going a little crazy with the micromanaging. No offense."

"Cass is right," Wasabi called over his shoulder, as he and Fred struggled to tack up a 'welcome home' banner. "This is, what, the fifth time you've made me re-hang this!?" Fred nearly wobbled off the ladder he was on as Wasabi spoke. "I'm usually the one freaking out about this stuff, but, c'mon man, it's not crooked anymore!"

"Wasabi, you were the last person I thought would turn against me," Hiro said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Anyway, where's Gogo? She was supposed to be here an hour ago!" Hiro had been stressing out about this little get together for nearly a week now, and now that the day was finally here, he couldn't stop feeling nervous. He'd been looking forward to Aria's homecoming for months, but now that it was here, he couldn't help but feel jittery and shaky.

"Keep your shirt on, Loverboy, I'm here." Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear; just then, Gogo appeared, taking the staircase two steps at a time. Hiro felt so frazzled, he didn't even notice the second set of footsteps ascending the staircase, and immediately took hold of Gogo's wrist.

"Good, cuz I need you to wrap these." She was stunned as he immediately shoved an armful of things at her. Just little things, most of them branded with SFIT's logo, for Aria as a 'welcome to the best school in Japanifornia' gift. Leaving her to stand there, he began fussing about how Aunt Cass was setting things up. Wasabi was in the process of catching Fred as he toppled from the ladder, and Honey Lemon was fetching a roll of wrapping paper. Gogo looked back, shrugging at Aria as she climbed the last step.

"Ahem." Aria cleared her throat, rather loudly, but it didn't seem to grab any attention. Watching as the ladder started tipping, Aria flicked her wrist lazily, and righted the device easily. Fred and Wasabi looked up then, stunned, and Fred let out a shout.

"Aria!" he said, barreling forward, and nearly knocking Aria back down the stairs with one of his patented full-body hugs. Hiro's head whipped around just as Honey Lemon squealed, and suddenly, Aria was the center of the commotion.

"Welcome back!" Honey Lemon sang, snapping a party hat on Aria's head before she could protest. Wasabi clapped her on the back, nearly sending her flying forward, and even though Gogo had met her on the way in, she threw in a 'I sort of missed you' shoulder punch, just to get in the spirit of things.

"Okay, can you guys stop physically assaulting her?" Hiro said, shoving his way through, and Aria laughed. She'd missed these guys, and definitely forgotten how strong they all were! "I'm sorry for our violent friends, Aria." Pulling her out of the tiny crowd, he pulled her right into his arms, encasing her in a hug. Accepting whole-heartedly, she hugged back. Another thing she'd forgotten; how fantastic Hiro smelled.

"Oh, my brood's all back!" Aunt Cass sang, crashing their hug and wrapping her arms around them both. "How have you been, sweetheart? Mochi and I have missed you at our late-night scary-movie-thon!"

"I'm great, much better now that I'm back." Finally released from everyone's grasp, and allowed space to breath, she smiled. "I barely made it into the summer program by the skin of my teeth, but I made it!"

"I knew you would," Hiro said, nudging her slightly.

"So you'll be in the biomedical department?" Wasabi asked, and Aria nodded.

"Yup. I won't be in the same department as Gogo and Hiro." Hiro had really pushed for her to go into a robotics major, but she'd always known it was just because he liked the idea of working in the same lab as her. In reality, Aria had no robotic aptitude whatsoever; she barely had an aptitude for biomedical engineering. She'd have to put in a lot of hard work these next two years if she wanted to be able to be accepted into SFIT's graduate program.

"Probably a good thing," Gogo said, ruffling Hiro's hair. "He'd never get any work done if you were." The others chuckled and nodded, and Hiro flinched away from her.

"C'mon, Gogo, you're like a whole head shorter than me, you can't keep ruffling my hair like I'm 12…" he whined. Taking off her jacket and slinging it over the back of the couch, Aria was relieved it was so easy to jump right back in with these guys. She'd been so worried it'd be awkward and they'd have nothing to talk about; they were her friends, but it'd been so long since she'd been in San Fransokyo. She was happy her worries had proven false.

* * *

"Hey, here you are." Pushing open the door, Hiro poked his head out, and found Aria inspecting Aunt Cass' garden. "Everyone was wondering where you'd gone."

"Sorry," Aria said, touching the petals of one of the chrysanthemums gently. "I had to call my mom and tell her I made it okay, so I went searching for a quiet place, and remembered you guys had this garden up here." Hiro walked up beside her as she turned and looked out over the edge of the roof. He was so close, their shoulders pressed together. Aria liked that, just being close. After so long doing long-distance, just being in the same house as Hiro felt like a victory. "Aunt Cass is certainly a talented green-thumb."

"Ha, yeah, you'd never guess, huh?" Hiro grinned, wrapping an arm around Aria's waist. "It's actually thanks to Tadashi that she ever found out she liked to garden. He brought home a bean plant from school when we were really young. It was his science experiment, really kiddy stuff, you know. He had to make it grow a bean pod so he could show the class." He chuckled slightly, shaking his head. "And from there it just took off. The house was filled with plants, until Cass realized there was perfectly usable space up here."

"I always wanted to grow flowers," Aria said, admiring the various colored blooms around them, "but I kill everything I touch." This caused Hiro to let out a laugh, and he hugged her close.

"I doubt that." Bending slightly, he touched his forehead to hers, and heat began to rise in Aria's cheeks. "I forgot how cute you are close up."

"Yeah, well..." Aria was always so flustered when he said things like that, out of the blue! Hiro was the type to blurt things out without thinking much about them. "You'll have plenty of time to remember. Two years of time, at least."

"It better me more than two years," he said, toying with a piece of Aria's hair.

"Hopefully."

"Yeah, hopefully." Leaning down further, Aria momentarily panicked; she hadn't kissed him in over a year! Did she still remember how!? But he didn't give her much time to worry, his lips were on hers in an instant. And all her worry was for naught, there was nothing in the world that came as natural to her as kissing this boy. She felt every anxiety slip away as they stood intertwined, on the rooftop garden, as the sun was beginning to set. It couldn't have been more cliché, right?

Wrong.

"Oh my-!" Shoving away from Hiro suddenly, Aria's eyes began to water, and her mouth hung open as she tried to fan off her tongue. "It's those freaking hot wings!"

"Oh my god!" Hiro's face went from pale to fire-truck red in an instant, and he covered her face with his hands. "Aria, I'm so sorry!"

"Why does Cass make them so spicy!?" She honestly felt like she was dying; she'd eaten those hot wings only once, back during the first week of her stay, and she'd sworn never to try them again. She couldn't handle them! But Hiro was far more used to the degree of spiciness than she was, and had thought nothing of it. "I think I'm actually dying!"

And that was their first reunion kiss. Not exactly storybook perfect.


	3. Chapter Three - Orientation

Fred was the first to leave, very conveniently skipping out before he could be asked to help with clean up. Gogo was next, after Cass insisted she take home several Tupperware containers of leftovers, which she grudgingly accepted. Honey Lemon and Wasabi stayed the longest, but after about the hundredth yawn, Wasabi insisted they go, because Honey was just about to fall asleep on her feet. And before she knew it, Aria found herself alone with the Hamada's, and of course Baymax.

"You sure you don't want to just spend the night?" Cass said, as the two of them stood at the kitchen sink, the older woman washing the dishes, as the younger dried them. "You know we'd love to have you."

"Well, I'm actually supposed to check in at my dorm at 5pm," Aria said, and she twisted her wrist to look at her watch. "Which is in about an hour. I would, but, I don't want admissions to get on my back about being late."

"Well, you're always welcome here, Sweetie, you know that." The two smiled at each other, and Aria was grateful that Cass wasn't as stubborn as Hiro was about this particular issue. The last time they'd video chatted, he'd seemed okay with the idea of her living at the SFIT dorms, but…there really was no telling with that boy.

Speaking of that boy, he should have been helping with the clean u and dishes, but he was instead flopped on the couch, texting on his phone.

"Hiro Hiyashi Hamada, you get over here and help with dishes!" Cass said sternly, and Aria nearly cracked up.

"His middle name is Hiyashi?" she asked, and Hiro could be heard whining in protest from the other room.

"Cass!" He sat up and looked over at them. "C'mon, really? Don't use my middle name…"

"Why do all your names start with H?" Aria chuckled, drying off her hands and walking over. Hiro's eyes rolled.

"Ask my parents, if it were up to me, none of my names would start with H." Bending slightly and kissing his forehead, Aria smiled.

"Well, Hiro Hiyashi Hamada, It's getting late. I think I should probably-" Before she could finish Hiro had already jumped to his feet.

"Ah, right! We should probably bring your stuff in; I totally forgot you'd brought all your stuff with you!" Aria quirked an eyebrow at him, momentarily confused, and watched him head down the stairs. It was only when she looked over at Cass, who was wearing a shocked expression, did she understand what Hiro was saying.

"Hey, wait!" she called, following him down the stairs. She caught up to him at the café door, and halted as he held his hand out to her. This confused her as well, and so, not really knowing what he expected from her, she placed her hand awkwardly in his. He just laughed at that, though, and reached with his other hand for her car keys, which dangled from the lanyard around her neck. "Hey!" Taking her keys, he strolled out across the sidewalk, and unlocked her car. "Hiro, what do you think you're doing?" she finally asked, exasperated.

"I…uh…what?" Hiro was halfway to the door with one of the large plastic bins Aria had packed into the back of her beat-up little car, when she'd questioned him as to what he was doing. "I'm taking your stuff in, what does it look like?"

"I told you, Hiro, I'm staying at the SFIT dorms…" Aria had told him this several times before, and he always seemed slightly miffed, but in the end complacent with her wishes. But now it was like he'd never even heard of the notion.

"Well, yeah, you SAID that, but I mean…c'mon," he set the bin down on the sidewalk in front of the café, and gave Aria a helpless look. "Don't you wanna live with me?"

"I...that's not…" She was flustered by this remark, and crossed her arms, her cheeks starting to glow pink. "Hiro, I told you, I'm not gonna impose on you and Aunt Cass like that, and besides-"

"Aunt Cass totally loves you," he interrupted, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, in the vague direction his Aunt would be working inside. "So don't use that excuse on me."

"Hiro, don't make me say it in public…" She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, but Hiro's confused stare did not waiver, and she huffed in frustration. "I'm not sure I really want to stay in Tadashi's side of the room, okay?" She'd given this particular issue a lot of thought. The one time she'd slept in Tadashi's bed, it'd felt so weird, she'd fled it to sleep in Hiro's bed. She didn't want to encroach on Hiro's late brother's space like that.

"Is that all?" Hiro said, smiling. "Well of course you wouldn't be. You'd just toss all your stuff in with mine and live on my side."

"Oh, yeah, toss my stuff into the pit of no return you call a room?" He stuck his tongue out at her teasing, but she continued. "Hiro, it's sweet and everything, but I need my own space, you know? Plus, that'd mean we would share a bed…" She trailed off, thinking that Hiro would catch the hint and look away awkwardly, but his stare held, like he didn't even understand what that implied. "…which is bad," she continued, and he still didn't reply or look shocked. "…because we're just kids, and not an old married couple."

"You know that doesn't even really mean anything." Picking the bin back up, he continued towards the door, talking to Aria as she chased after him over his shoulder. "I told you, I'm not into rushing things, and we'd just be sleeping-"

"Hiro!" Fed up with this game of his, Aria shouted to stop him, and he paused, surprised at the sudden change of volume.

"Er-"

"I'm not gonna live with you, or any guy, unless/until we are serious, okay?" This seemed to pierce Hiro's thick skull, and he slowly turned, his expression troubled.

"I…kinda thought we were serious," he said slowly, and look he shot Ariaa look that just about broke her heart.

"Hiro…" she didn't really know how to reply to that. How do you reply to that!? "I'm only 19, and you only just turned 20, and we haven't been face to face like this in a year. How can that be serious?"

"Because I love you." Again, his declaration flustered Aria, who was acutely aware of the eyes of passersby, eavesdropping in on this very indiscreet conversation.

"Hiro, can we not do this on the sidewalk-"

"I watched you die, Aria," he continued, without letting her finish. "That was serious, and don't act like it wasn't! So what if we had to be long distance for a while? It only made me want to be with you more!"

"Hiro-"

"If this isn't serious, then what the hell is? Tell me, because I'd love to know!"

"Getting married, that's what would be serious!" Aria was shocked at herself for yelling this, but Hiro's voice had been getting louder and louder as he spoke, and she'd felt so flustered and unhappy and self-conscious, she couldn't really help it. It did shut him up, though.

Aria didn't want to get married, not for a very long time. She wasn't ready for that! But she also wasn't ready to commit to living with someone! That was such a big step, and sure she'd crashed at the Hamada's household when she'd run away, but that was different! Everything had changed now, she and Hiro were a couple, and she just didn't feel comfortable with moving in with him. And she was a shy girl, but this was one thing she would not let herself be walked all over for.

Hiro just stared at her. He looked away briefly, seeming to suddenly realize people around them had stopped to stare, and only then did his face get red.

"…Oh," was all he had to say. They both stood motionless for a few more moments, before Aria let out a sigh.

"Can I put that back in my car? I'm going to be late for check in." Looking down at the bin in his hands, Hiro quietly handed it over. Shoving it back into the back-seat of the four-door, she looked back at him. "…Hiro, look, I don't wanna get married. Not now, not for a long time. And I also don't want to move in on a moment's notice like this. Can't you just give me some time?"

"…Yeah." Turning, he started making his way slowly back to the café door, and Aria felt like stopping him, and apologizing further, but she was so frusterated with him, that all she could do was sigh and watch him go. Then, quietly climbing into the driver's seat, she turned the key in the ignition, and pulled onto the road.

Was that a fight? Had that been their first fight as a couple? Their first real fight, anyway. Aria's face burned. Why did it have to be in public!? Why was Hiro so stubborn!? Ugg, the first day back in San Fransokyo, they'd barely been together three hours, and now they were at a Mexican Standoff, giving each other the cold shoulder over a stupid argument that shouldn't have even happened! Aria wanted to kick herself!

"Right now, I just have to focus on moving all my stuff in," she told herself, taking a deep breath. "I'll call Hiro tomorrow morning and we'll sort all of this out. For right now, it's fine to leave things like they are." But deep down, it didn't feel fine. Not really.

* * *

"Hiro? It's me again. We really need to talk about yesterday. I…I just want to apologize in person, okay? Listen, Orientation starts in like, an hour, so my phone's gonna be turned off until later this afternoon. Call me back then, or, I dunno, just come meet me here on campus. Okay? Okay. I'll talk to you later. Love you."

Aria tapped the 'end call' button on her phone, and watched as the number pad disappeared, replaced with Hiro's contact page. His contact picture was one of them together. It had been taken just before she'd left San Fransokyo over a year ago. It was only a year, but someone, they both looked so much younger. A lot of things could change in that time frame, it seemed.

"Your boyfriend still not picking up?" Looking up suddenly in surprise, Aria let her shoulders relax after a moment of panic; she was really going to have to get used to sharing a room with someone else. She nodded, and her roommate clucked her tongue. "That's trouble, girl."

"He's probably just sleeping in, you know? It is still summer break for him." She tried to convince herself that Hiro wasn't holding a grudge. It wasn't like him, to hold a grudge over something so minor. But, she supposed, this wasn't minor to him. She sighed, and stood up. Might as well get ready, she figured. If she got her mind off of him for the day, she'd probably come back to the dorm later to find texts or missed calls from him. At least that's what she told herself.

Her and Rachel, her roommate, made their way down to the quad at a quarter till, and were met by a sizable crowd of transfer students, already milling about in the grass. Rachel seemed to be the naturally gregarious type, and was waving people over to talk immediately, but Aria hung back. She wasn't exactly outgoing, even if she wasn't as twitchy or jumpy as she used to be.

"More people here than I thought there'd be." She nearly jumped out of her socks as a voice spoke directly behind her, and she had to force her heartrate to decelerate as the owner of the voice walked up to stand beside her. "I thought the program would have been a bit more competitive."

"Y-yeah," she said, running her hand through her hair as she looked up at the newcomer. Boy, was he tall! At least a few inches taller than Hiro. Blonde, tan, and the kind of aggressive good looks that made Aria think he couldn't have been a nerd, and that SFIT must have had a modeling program she'd never heard of before. "Er, I guess there's just a lot of talented people in Japanifornia."

"Huh. Or the entrance requirements are getting lax." Aria bristled at this, knowing Hiro probably had something to do with her getting accepted into the program, and wondered if this boy was trying to get a dig in at her. But he just laughed and winked down at her, which made her deflate slightly. "Calm down, I'm only joking!" Sticking his hand out to her, Aria reluctantly took it, and he shook her hand so forcefully, it felt like a shockwave up her arm. "I'm Finn, Finn Arduick, nice to meet you!"

"Uh…Aria Tsukino," she replied, slightly reluctant to be in acquaintance with this guy. She couldn't really tell if she was intimidated by him, or just plain didn't like him. Probably a bit of both.

"So what're you in for, Aria. And d'you mind if I call you Ari?"

"Umm…what I'm in for?" she asked, shifting her messenger bag slightly on her shoulder. "And, I guess you could call me that, though…none of my friends do…"

"Your major," he corrected, shoving his hands in his hoody pockets. "I'm computational analytics. I studied computer science and business technology before transferring here." Aria frowned. Jeez, that sounded like a difficult major. She suddenly wondered if she was really truly cut out to be here…

"Oh, well, I'm going into the biomedical engineering program," she said, shrugging her shoulders slightly, "and I got my AA in biology, so…"

"Ah, so we won't have any classes together. Bummer!" A ripple of murmurs was travelling through the crowd around them, and straining her neck, Aria could see several professors making their way through the crowd, passing folders out. "We might have lab time together, though. I'll be looking forward to that, Ari!" He winked at her again, and for some reason, the skin on the back of her neck began to crawl. Yup, she definitely didn't like this guy.

Thankfully, before he could do or say anything else to make her more uncomfortable, a professor approached them, handing them each a folder with the materials they'd need for orientation.

"Here you are; don't lose any of the pages, and make sure you stick to your assigned group's schedule…huh." The woman stopped, suddenly fixing her gaze on Aria, who shrunk under her unwanted scrutiny. "Do I know you?" the woman asked, and Aria was forced to look up from her shoes, to glance at the woman's face. She didn't seem familiar. "Is your name Arianna, or Arie, or-"

"Aria?" Aria supplied, and the woman snapped her fingers.

"That's it! Aria Tsubeko!"

"Er, Tsukino…"

"Right, right! Hiro Hamada's pledge?" At this, Aria's face went from moscato pink to volcano red in an instant, and all she wanted to do was crawl under a rock. So Hiro HAD pulled some strings to get her in? And everyone on campus knew about it? This was a nightmare… "I didn't meet him personally, but I've heard such great, great things about him," she continued, "so I'm sure anyone he vouched for must be just as extraordinary."

"I, uh…I don't…know about that…" She wished she'd spontaneously combust right about now.

"Oh, and where are my manners! I'm Julia Diedrich, but most everyone just calls me Jules." She smiled a 1000 watt smile at the two of them standing there, and Aria was honestly worried she might go blind for a moment.

"Are you a professor here?" Finn asked, just as startled by this woman's sudden overexhuberance as Aria was.

"No, no, I'm what you might call an adjudicator. I'm just here to observe the school for a few quarters, assess the quality of the education experience, and various other tax-related things. All state-run schools get a visit from me." She giggled at that, slightly unsettling coming from a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties, maybe early thirties. "Well, I look forward to seeing you around, Aria. I expect to see some big things from a friend of Hiro Hamada!" She waved at them as she continued on, handing out packets, and Aria was frantically looking for any direction to bolt in. She had the papers, she could skip Orientation, right?

"So you're a pledge of that Hamada kid?" Finn asked, smirking slightly. "So you got in by knowing people, eh?"

"No! I swear, I-"

"Ari, chill out!" He nudged her in the side with his elbow playfully, chuckling at how red she was. "I'm just joking! If we're going to be friends, you need to learn to take a chill pill."

Aria swallowed hard. This was going to be a very long day.

* * *

Flopping down on her bottom bunk, Aria groaned into her pillow. The rest of Orientation had not been any smoother. They'd done those cheesy trust falls first thing, to try and 'build a community of trust and unity among the students you'll be sharing your educational journey with'. Aria had been dropped. Twice.

"I'm not even that heavy!" she gripped to herself, taking her hair out of the braid it'd been in all day. Pressing her palms against her eyes for a minute or two, she tried to decompress, before she finally looked at her phone since earlier that morning. She didn't know how she was gonna handle it if there were no missed calls.

But lo and behold, when she turned it on, a single text message sat in her inbox, and it was from Hiro. Opening it as quickly as her phone would allow, she skimmed through the somewhat lengthy message.

"Aria, I don't like fighting with you. I guess we both handled yesterday badly, because we've never really had a real fight before. Maybe this is actually a good thing, y'know? Anyway, whenever you want, you can always come see me; you know where I am. Love you."

She sat back, and stared at the wall for a moment, before rereading the text, and rereading it again. Was…was that an apology, or…it left her with a bad taste in her mouth, and she honestly couldn't tell if Hiro was still mad at her or what. 'You know where I am?' So, what did that mean?

"Why are you so stubborn!" she yelled at her phone, and then collapsed backwards onto her bedspread. She couldn't figure him out. Not one bit.


	4. Chapter Four - Evasion

"Hey, Ari, did you hear the last part of Professor Mull's lecture?" Tucking her papers and textbook back into her bag, Aria looked up as one of her classmates, Lee, paused in front of her table. "He was mumbling for like, the past half hour, I could barely understand a word out of his mouth."

"Yeah, I did," she said, still getting used to the ridiculous nickname Finn had stuck her with. Unfortunately, having been called 'Ari' for the entirety of orientation pretty much forced the stupid name on her. She decided not to bother fighting it, it would have been too exhausting always correcting people. "I can scan and text you the last page of my notes if you want?"

"Hey me too, please!" The girl sitting next to her said, Aria thought her name might've been Molly.

"Okay, yeah, I know I have Lee's number already in my phone, do you wanna just create a new contact with your name and number and I'll get right on that." Handing her phone off to the girl, a third voice chipped in, a boy Aria remembered had dropped her in one of her trust falls.

"Did you guys see how fast he sprinted out of here?" he asked, referring to their 'Applied Principals of Biotechnology' professor.

"Maybe he had a roast in the oven," Aria quipped, more to herself than these people she barely knew. But to her surprise, it garnered more than a few chuckles, and a small smile spread across her face. She liked being funny around strangers, she knew these people didn't feel obligated to be nice to her, so their laughs must be genuine, right?

"Or a hot date?" Lee put in. "Probably scampered off to shine that bald spot; someone's fixing to surprise a special lady tonight!" Beside her, Molly let out a rather loud snort, trying to keep a laugh in. And Aria couldn't hold in a grin of amusement at that!

"Well, I know I gatta get out of here too," Molly said, calming down and handing Aria back her phone. "And thanks for sending those notes, Ari! Don't forget!"

"I won't." Molly waved as she stood up and made for the door, Lee and the other boy close behind.

"See you tomorrow," Lee called over his shoulder at her, and while the classroom was basically empty by then, Aria remained seated for a few more moments. She wasn't some social butterfly, especially not here, where every other students was some kind of genius savant, but she rather liked the sort of easy raport that had just occurred. Just, casual friendliness. She certainly wasn't used to it, the only people she felt comfortable with were Hiro and the gang. But, this was nice. She'd have to try being more social from now on.

And especially now. Since she'd started her summer classes three weeks back, Hiro had made himself so scarce, she hardly ever saw him anymore. She just didn't get it, he'd told her he didn't like fighting with her, and then he pulls a Houdini every time she even turned to look at him? And always with some bogus story about his Doctoral project, or recovering fragmented data from the break-in earlier that year, or some such other nonsense. Aria knew he was making excuses not to hang out with her, and it hurt more than she was willing to admit.

Technically, she was still angry at him, if only slightly, so she should have been the one avoiding him. But these days, she found herself seeking him out more and more, and just growing more frustrated with each passing day when he answered any texts from her with very short, curt answers. He was her boyfriend, for crying out loud!

Suddenly a bit more somber, Aria heaved a sigh, and stood up. Exiting the lecture hall, she checked her phone for the time. Nearly an hour until her next class. 'I guess I'll just hunker down and go over my notes till then,' she thought, and made her way out of the building and out into the courtyard. It was hot, even by San Fransokyo standards, and she quickly made her way to a shady spot. Sitting on a small brick retaining wall sheltered by a low-hanging cherry blossom tree (which was not nearly as beautiful in the dead of summer as it was in the spring) she fished through her bag for her notebook. Several bees were hopping from groundflower to groundflower as she opened up to a page full of pen and highlighter marks, and began to skim through.

Classes here at SFIT were proving to be just as difficult as she imagined, dare I say feared? Aria had always been a good student, a diligent note taker and studier, but she knew she'd have to kick it into high gear if she wanted to succeed here. The classes were not easy, she couldn't rest on her laurels, not now. But, even with that in the back of her head, she couldn't keep her mind from drifting. She knew she should be focusing on her notes, but there was only one thing she could effectively think about, and that was Hiro. She just grew more frusterated as she had to reread several lines because she hadn't been paying enough attention as her eyes had glazed over them.

"Damn him," she swore under her breath, whining and eventually snapping her notebook shut. "Why can't you be a normal boyfriend?" She knew for Hiro that was probably impossible; he was not normal in any way whatsoever. Hunching over slightly, she thought about maybe just going to get some lunch or a cup of coffee at the overpriced campus coffee stand, but she didn't feel like eating anything either. She never felt like eating anything anymore. It was still summer quarter, but Hiro was pretty much always at his lab space these days, and whenever she saw him avoiding her on campus, she lost her appetite.

Standing up suddenly, she began frantically shoving her papers back into the pit that was her messenger bag, and started off at a brisk pace, towards the robotics lab. This was crazy, and it was ending now! Aria was going to march right up to that boy and tell him what was what! She would not be ignored, damn it! This would drive her crazy otherwise!

Taking the steps outside the lab two at a time, she pushed open both double doors, feeling so sure of herself, and walked right up to the elevators. Punching in the first floor code, she watched the doors slide shut. He was not going to pull any more funny business with her! He was going to apologize!

…Only, what if he wanted her to apologize. She didn't want to! But, she had to admit…the fight was half her fault. It takes two to fight, after all…as she waited for the elevator to open back up, she begun to doubt herself. 'Ohhhh, this was a bad plan,' she thought, suddenly wanting to push the 'close doors' button over and over. 'Never make rash decisions on an empty stomach!' she chided herself, holding her breath as the elevator finally touched down, and opened.

She wasn't sure what she was expecting, for Hiro to be standing right outside the doors when they opened. But he wasn't. Swallowing hard and gathering her frazzled courage, she stepped out, and made her way down the hall, towards the main lab space. She peeked it, but not seeing Hiro anywhere, stuck her head in further.

"Er, is Hiro Hamada here?" she asked, as a graduate student moseyed slowly by the door. The guy, who Aria didn't recognize, just shook his head.

"No, but I'm sure he's around here somewhere," he replied, "there's only like, three of us guys who come by the lab during the summer."

"Oh. Well, thanks anyway," Aria said, letting the guy get back to whatever it was he was working on. Coming all the way into the lab, she bagan poking around, looking to see if he was hiding out in any of the walled off spaces on the main floor. 'Huh. The one time I come by the lab, he's not here,' she thought, crossing her arms. Deciding that this whole idea was a bust anyway, she exited the lab, pulling her phone out again. She glanced at her screen briefly in the hallway, before looking back up. And to her great surprise, who should she see entering the elevator with a box in his arms but Hiro?

"Hiro!" she called out, sprinting forward, but it was too late. She was just able to catch the flicker of recognition across his face as the doors slid shut. Huffing angrily at the inconvenient timing of the horrid elevator, she turned to the fire staircase, and started quickstepping her way up to the ground floor.

Out of breath when she arrived in the main lobby (she hadn't been in practice with BH6 for a year at that point, after all) she looked around frantically, her head swinging side to side. But Hiro wasn't anywhere to be seen, and she knew she couldn't have possibly beaten the elevator up. Bursting from the front doors, she saw the boy strapping the boy he was carrying to the back of his brother's moped, and hopping on to start it up.

"Hiro!" she called again, breathless as she nearly flew down the outside set of steps, but again, no use. He kicked off from the curb before she could reach him, and took off. "Goddamn it, Hiro! I know you heard me!" Yelling after him, she attracted more than a few stares, but at that point, she was so frazzled, she hardly cared. Why was he doing this!? Why was he intent on driving her insane!?

* * *

Hiro scowled at his reflection. He was a mess. Splashing more water onto his face, he turned the bathroom faucet off and peeked at himself again. Yup. He looked terrible. His earlobes were a painful red after moving up a gauge too quickly, there were dark circles under his eyes, his hair was…well, not really any messier than usual, but still. Messy.

"What am I even doing with my life," he groaned, pressing his palms to his eyes. He felt like collapsing in the bathtub and taking the most self-pitying of naps there, but he knew he couldn't do that. He had too much work to do for that.

"You should rest," Baymax said, looking up at Hiro shut the bathroom door behind him and sluggishly slouched his way back to his desk. Swiping several small half-finished products from the surface to the ground, he collapsed down into his chair, and proceeded to clunk his head down on the desk. He felt utterly exhausted. "Excessive exhaustion has the same effect on the brain as a blood alcohol level of .12" he continued, walking over to stand behind his creator.

"So you're saying I could take a couple shots and still be as productive as I am now?" Hiro mumbled, half sarcastically.

"It would be inadvisable," Baymax said, once again not realizing the wry humor of his words. Hiro might've normally laughed, but not today.

"I figured." Cracking his eyes open against the stream of light coming in from the partially open blinds, he sighed. What kind of a friend was he? What kind of a boyfriend was he? He'd been avoiding Aria for so long now, that even today, when she'd finally come looking for him, he still ran away. Like some kind of douchey-coward. Groaning again, he closed his eyes and conked his head against his desk again. "…I wish I wasn't such an ass. I could really use Aria's advice right about now."

"You could just ask." The voice that spoke was not Baymax's. Shooting straight up and out of his chair, Hiro spun around, and came face to face with none other than Aria, who seemed to have the timing of God himself, appearing there like that. He hadn't heard her climb the stairs to his loft. He froze, his heart skipping a beat; god, she was cute when she was annoyed. But more than that, he felt nervous. She wasn't scowling, wasn't crossing her arms in that disapproving manner of hers, but he still knew she must be mad at him. How could she not be? He'd been the worst sort of boyfriend recently; one little fight, and then a three week stalemate?

"Aria," he managed to sputter, still stunned to see her there. She just stood for a moment, and then rolled her eyes.

"You can stop looking like a deer in the headlights," she said, pulling the strap of her bag over her head, and letting it fall to the ground next to the banister at the top of the staircase. Pulling her jacket off, she tossed it onto Hiro's bed, before flopping down on it herself, sitting on the edge. "I'm not here to chew you out, if that's what you're afraid of."

"You're…not?" Suddenly confused, Hiro let his guard down a bit, and his shoulders relaxed. Aria let out a short laugh, and shook her head.

"If I'd caught you at the lab, I would have! I would have torn you a new one, I was in such a bad mood!" She rolled her eyes again, at herself this time. Having to sit through class, having to stew in her own thoughts for an hour and a half made her cool off a bit. "But I guess now I'm just…here. Just me. No insults; unless you piss me off."

"…I, er…" Not really knowing what to say next, Hiro sank back into his chair, still looking anywhere but his girlfriend's face. "…I'm glad you're just here," he finally said, actually being honest. Avoiding her had been exhausting, and he was tired of running from that one stupid little fight.

"Are you?" she asked, though there was no malice in her words. She was honestly just curious. "You've been doing a really good job of brushing me off these past few weeks."

"I've been…busy," he answered lamely, and he knew it was a crap answer. Aria knew it too, but just sighed, and accepted it. She didn't come here to fight some more. She'd decided to just say what she needed to say to get this whole thing behind them. She couldn't always be so proud. "I know that sounds stupid," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I guess I've been keeping busy too," she answered back, shrugging. "But, look, I'm tired of just avoiding any of this. So, I'm just gonna say it…" Hiro bristled for a fraction of a second; was she going to break up with him? The irrational side of his brain seemed to think so. "…I'm sorry."

"Aria, I- …huh?" He was relieved, but confused. What did she have to apologize for? He was the asshole here.

"I guess we just weren't communicating very well before," she said, running her hands through her hair, much longer now than it had been when she and Hiro had met. "I shouldn't have just expected you to read my mind and guess what I was feeling. I should have told you I was feeling pushed and rushed, but I just kept beating around the bush, and then I guess I kind of blew up at you…in public…" She was feeling a bit flustered with this apology, and her cheeks grew rosy as she continued. "And, I dunno, I should have been more articulate or something-"

"Hey, look," Holding up his hand, Hiro hesitated, before standing, and coming to sit beside her on the bed. His heart clenched slightly when Aria scooched over for him so their legs didn't touch, instead of just allowing them to be close. But that was to be expected, he supposed, with how he'd been acting lately. "I wasn't…I didn't mean to push you or rush you or anything." He said, feeling awkward perched on the edge of the bed like this, too stiff. You wouldn't think these two people were dating. "I was being a jerk, and, you didn't deserve for me to continue to act like an ass like that. But, you gatta know, I haven't been like this because of our fight."

"Well, then why?" she asked, her eyebrows knitting together above her eyes. Biting his lip, Hiro avoided her gaze again, and shifted through his brain for a silent moment.

"I don't mean to sound so stupid, but it's really not an excuse, I've been really busy lately." He finally met her eyes, and in the same movement, set his hand down on top of hers. He felt her hand twitch slightly in surprise, but she didn't pull away or protest. "I know you probably don't believe me. But, with everything that's happened-"

"What's happened?" Aria interrupted, now slightly worried. Had she been mad at him for something out of his control? "Was there another break in or something?" Hiro looked surprised for a second, and then shook his head.

"Er, no. Just, there's just a lot of damage to my project from that break in back in January."

"Oh."

"It probably sounds like a really bad lie, but I promise-"

"No, no." Looking a bit sullen, Aria nodded before continuing. "I do believe you. I guess I was so caught up in my own feelings I didn't even realize you were still dealing with your own problems. I'm…sorry again."

"…Stop saying you're sorry." Standing up, Hiro ran a hand through his hair, and took a few steps away. "I should be apologizing."

"Okay," she said, still feeling a bit weird with the whole situation. "No more sorry's, no more avoiding each other. Okay?"

"Deal." Hiro smiled back at her slightly, but it wasn't one of his usual carefree numbers. There was something more on his mind, and Aria knew it. But just as she was opening her mind to press further, she thought better. Not right now. They were finally on neutral ground again, no need to keep digging when things were finally stable.

"So….we're good now again?" Aria asked, smiling back at him. Hiro didn't answer, shoving his hands in his sweater pockets. There was a pause, a bit too long for Aria's comfort, before he nodded.

"Yeah," he said quietly, trying to give her another distracted smile. This one irked her even worse; made her think he was still mad at her.

"Okay. You sure?"

"I'm sure." Holding his hand out to her, Aria took it, and he pulled her to her feet. Kissing her forehead, Hiro pulled her into a hug, which she accepted, but it felt strange. He was really clinging to her on this hug. It felt…sort of like a goodbye hug. She felt a bit trapped by it in fact, and even after wanting to step away, it didn't look like he was going to let her. Pressing his face into her hair, she heard him sigh slightly, and then mumble. "Why can't things go back to normal?" he said, which irked Aria even further.

"They're going back to normal," she assured him, patting his back awkwardly. Finally letting her go, she stepped away to see him turn back to his desk, looking pensive.

"Are they?" he asked, to no one in particular. That was Aria's cue to leave to go home and digest the conversation. Weirded out by Hiro's crypticness, she went over to her bag and hauled it over her shoulder, across her torso.

"Well, I actually can't stay very long," she said, which didn't illicit much of a response from Hiro. "But, I'm free tomorrow, after around noon if you want to hang out? You seem like you could use a little bit of time to just unwind. You're pretty distracted." Hiro didn't answer right away again.

"I was actually thinking of doing some recon tomorrow night with Baymax," he said, and nothing more. Aria couldn't tell if that was an excuse not to hang out, or an invitation for her to come along, or what. Clearing her throat slightly, to see if he had anything else to add to that statement, she sighed.

"Alone?" she asked, to which he nodded slightly, glancing back at her. "Wouldn't it be more efficient for the whole team to go? Cover more ground?"

"Er, yeah…I guess…" He looked away, seemingly uncomfortable at that, but Aria pressed further.

"I mean, if it's leads you're going off of, having the whole gang along just increases the amount of area you can cover in a night. And, like I said, I'm a little rusty. I could use some practice!" Since Hiro had once been so keen for her to rejoin Big Hero 6 and go on missions with them, she figured this suggestion would perk him up from his somber attitude, but alas, nothing. If anything, he seemed more uncomfortable with the idea of her coming along by the minute. "Unless you don't want me there…?"

"No, no, that's not it!" Looking conflicted for another moment, he finally smiled back at her. This time it was a more convincing smile, one that seemed to fool her. "I'd love to have you along, you know that."

"Okay, then it's settled." Nodding once to herself, Aria put her hand on the banister. "I'll suit up and meet you guys here tomorrow, just text me what time."

"Okay. I will."

"And, Hiro?" He looked up at her, and at her genuine smile of affection, he felt the weights sitting on his shoulders lift slightly. She really was a breath of fresh air for him, why couldn't he knock it off and appreciate her more. "I love you," she finished.

"I love you too," he parroted back, before she started making her way down the stairs, and then was out of sight. He continued to stand there for a few moments, before turning to look out the window. He saw her exit the café's front door, and frantically jog to catch up to the departing trolley. He chuckled slightly, before his mood returned, and his smile slowly faded away. "Love you, Aria. More than I'm capable of saying right now."


	5. Chapter Five - Eavesdropping

It had been so long since Aria had dusted off her suit and worn it. Glancing at herself in the mirror in her dorm room, she was glad her roommate Rachel was out with friends tonight; it would be hard enough sneaking out of the dorm in this ridiculous outfit without her hanging around! She decided to wait to put on the actual armor, instead shoving the pieces into a duffel bag and slinging it over her shoulder. The boots would also have to go in the bag; bright orange wasn't exactly inconspicuous, after all. Slipping on some tennis shoes and a zip-up hoodie over the black under-suit, it looked pretty much like she was just wearing leggings under a sweater. Good and inconspicuous. Well, except for the weirdly bulky duffel bag. But hey, this was as good as it was getting.

It felt as though a weight had been lifted from Aria's shoulders after she'd spoken with Hiro yesterday. Even though he still seemed to be acting weird, at least he wasn't actively avoiding her anymore. It would be good to get out with the team, she thought. They all needed this. And she hadn't seen Fred or Gogo in forever it felt like!

Locking her dorm behind her, she made her way through her residence hall and down two flights of stairs. Waving awkwardly at the two girls sitting at the front desk, she stepped out into the cool evening air, and took a deep breath. 5 o'clock, the perfect twilight hour. Not too hot, not too cold, not too bright, not too dark. A small smile crept up on her, and she started on her way across campus. That is, until she was stopped by an unexpected and rather unwelcome appearance.

"Ari!" The stupid nickname cut through the calm air like a knife, and Aria flinched; she remembered that voice. Turning slowly with a somewhat awkward smile plastered across her face, she saw Finn veer from his path to walk up to her, waving.

"Oh…hey Finn," she said, not particularly wanting to get caught up talking to this guy. He beamed when she returned his greeting, though.

"Long time no see," he said, pushing his hair back out of his face. He looked like he'd just been out running, which was probably true. "Haven't crossed paths during our schedules."

"Yeah, I guess so," she said, tapping her toes absently on the concrete path.

"That's a shame, but hey, maybe next quarter, right? Lookin' forward to that lab time!"

"…Right." Aria pulled her phone from her pocket, conspicuously checking the time. Finn did not seem to catch the hint.

"So where are you headed off to?" He asked, and Aria really wished he hadn't. Now she'd have to come up with something to say, and she was such a bad liar!

"Er…uh, the gym," she said, thinking quickly. That was a good excuse, after all, she was in leggings and carrying a duffle bag. This is how people who actually worked out and didn't watch hour upon hour of Netflix series dressed, right?

"Oh, damn, I just got back from my workout," Finn said, frowning slightly. "You shoulda texted me, I woulda liked a workout buddy! You still have my number from orientation, right?" Uh oh, this was backfiring!

"Oh, darn, that's too bad," she said, laughing nervously. She started inching away from him, the fake smile still on her face. "I'll be sure to hit you up next time." As if.

"You do that!" This seemed to placate him, and as Aria waved at him, he let her go without a fight. She breathed a sigh of relief when he turned to walk away, and she did the same, picking her pace up a considerable amount.

Catching the trolley at the last minute, Aria held onto the rail with one hand, shifting her bag with the other. Now that that obstacle was out of her way, she could relax again. Just an easy night of recon with her friends and her boyfriend. For the first time in a while, she felt rather happy with herself. This was good. This was definitely good.

Hopping off at the correct intersection, Aria waved to Cass through the front window, just as Hiro's Aunt was turning the sign out front to 'closed'. The older woman waved back, happy to see Aria coming around again, and pointed behind her, signaling Hiro was out back. Nodding, Aria rounded the building's corner, and found herself in the Hamada's back driveway. The garage door was standing open, and inside, Gogo and Honey Lemon were helping Fred, who had somehow gotten himself stuck weirdly in his suit. Hiro didn't seem to be in the garage, but Wasabi was standing off to the side, speaking to someone on his phone.

"Hey guys," Aria chirped, happy to see them outside of school, and immediately Honey Lemon twirled around, encasing her in a hug as soon as she was within arm's reach.

"Aria!" she sang, as Gogo managed to shove Fred's arm where it needed to go, before turning and nodding at the younger girl.

"Look who dressed down," she said sarcastically, indicating Aria's 'incognito' suit.

"Har har," she teased back, Setting her duffel bag down when Honey released her, and unzipping it. "Didn't really want to waltz through campus in bright orange armor."

"If I could wear my suit 100% of the time, I totally would," Fred interjected, using the claw on his suit's glove to scratch at his ear.

"It already smells like you wear it 100% of the time," Gogo smirked. Pulling her sweater off and stepping out of her tennis shoes, Aria proceeded to pull piece after piece of her armor out, attaching it to her under suit one piece at a time, until finally she had stepped into her boots, and was ready to go. Tucking her helmet under her arm, she looked around once again.

"So, where's Hiro and Baymax?" she asked.

"He went inside a while ago to get something," Honey answered, picking off a loose thread from her skirt. "I guess I didn't notice how long he's been taking." Aria's eyebrows wrinkled together at this, but before she could ask a follow up question, Wasabi could be heard quickly saying goodbye to whoever he was talking to, and then groaning loudly after he'd hung up. Honey Lemon looked rather worried.

"Everything okay?" Gogo asked as their friend rejoined the group, pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly.

"Yeah, yeah. It's nothing, just stupid crap with the bank," he sighed, taking his headset from a nearby desk and positioning it across his face. "Okay, where is that boy? I need to punch some bad guys to take my mind off things!" Gogo jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, indicating the house, and Wasabi rolled his eyes. "I'll go find him." Retreating back into the house, all three girls exchanged a look once Wasabi was gone.

"What's that about?" Aria asked, and when both she and Gogo looked to their friend, Honey just threw her hands up in exasperation.

"I don't even know," she lamented, "Wasabi's been acting so weird lately! Always on his phone, always grumpy. I try to get him to tell me what's wrong, but he just brushes me off." Aria felt bad for her friend, Honey Lemon looked distraught over Wasabi's quizzical behavior. "I guess it has to do with the bank, which is understandable," she continued, "but I still don't know why he won't tell me anything."

"Men," Gogo said, rolling her eyes.

"Hiro's been weird lately too," Aria put in, looking back and forth between the two. "We kinda had a fight, but he seemed to hold a grudge over it for way too long. I dunno, maybe it's a full moon or something, but they're all acting kind of weird." By all, she meant all the guys, and that included her new 'acquaintance' Finn and his annoying antics, though neither Gogo nor Honey knew about that.

"Yeah, he has been dodgy lately," Honey said, tapping her chin. "But, it can't be because of a little lover's quarrel. You two have fought before, right?" Aria went a little pink at that, and laughed nervously.

"Ah, well…not really," she admitted, surprising even herself with it. It was hard to believe they'd never even had a small spat before. But she guessed long-distance was like that. "It was right after the welcome home party, and it wasn't really a proper fight. But me and him sort of avoided each other for a long time. I only just apologized to him yesterday."

"What?" Gogo scoffed, crossing her arms. "Don't apologize to that idiot," she said, "he's been distant because of the break in. He's been backing up all his research twice over lately, that's why he's not been easy to get a hold of. Besides. It probably was his fault you two had a fight. You know how stubborn he is." Aria smiled sideways at Gogo, shaking her head. Gogo was a pretty good ally to have on your side, she thought.

"Well, hopefully it's behind us now," she said, inspecting her helmet. "And hopefully the guys will stop acting so weird." It was just then that there was a crash behind the three of them. Spinning around, they were greeted by the sight of Fred flat on his back in the garage, a swivel chair overturned beside him, it's wheels still spinning.

"Fred, you idiot, what were you doing?" Gogo said, walking over to him and peering down at him. His hood was tipped back as he lay there, and he had a dazed look on his face.

"I was tired of listening to girly gossip," he said, sitting up and rubbing his head. "I wasn't doing anything!"

"Were you standing on the swivel chair?" Honey asked disapprovingly.

"…Maybe."

"Fred!" Honey bent down to help their friend to his feet just as Wasabi, Baymax and Hiro emerged from the house, the later looking a bit disheveled, like he'd just woken up. Aria wondered if that was actually true, if maybe he'd fallen asleep inside while they were waiting on him.

"Gogo, did you punch Fred out again?" Wasabi asked, observing the scene before them.

"He doesn't need my help hurting himself," she said dismissively, reaching for her helmet and securing it on her head. Aria laughed at that, as Hiro came to stand beside her.

"Hey," she said, somewhat hesitantly. He bent down to kiss her forehead, almost automatically. "You look like you just got up from a nap."

"I wish," he said, conveniently yawning just then.

"Find what you needed?" she asked, and he glanced sideways at her.

"Huh?"

"In the house? Honey said you were looking for something."

"Oh, right, right." Brushing his fingers through his shaggy hair, he pulled his helmet on, switching on the communicator as he did. "Yeah, everything's good." He was being rather curt again, which was starting to irritate Aria, but she decided that Hiro was probably tired from worrying all the time, and she would just have to swallow that irritation for now and get over it. Besides. They were about to all go out together as a team again! She shouldn't be hung up on Hiro's weirdness right now. Slipping her own helmet on, Aria was greeted with the distantly familiar digital display in front of her eyes.

"Baymax, why don't you tell 'em the plan," Hiro asked over the communicator, and just like that, a map of San Fransokyo popped up in front of her, several sections of the city lit up in either red, yellow or green.

"Green areas indicate commercial and residential zones, low risk zones or zones Hiro and I have already assessed," Baymax told them, his usual calming voice coming over her helmet's speakers. 'Already assessed?' she thought, wondering how many times Hiro and Baymax had done this, just the two of them. Maybe that's why he was so tired and distant? "Yellow areas indicate mid to high risk zones, including several of the historic neighborhoods, the bay area, and less developed neighborhoods. Red areas indicate immediate risk zones, industrial areas, and current unfollowed leads."

"And what exactly is it we're looking for in these zones?" Gogo asked.

"Any suspicious or illegal activity that may lead to information on any stolen tech or data from the break in of SFIT earlier this year."

"Every lead we've checked out so far has either gone cold or come up with a dead end," Hiro interjected, crossing his arms. "It either means the tech and data aren't circulating the city, or they're so far underground that simple surveillance and recon can't come up with anything."

"And these red spots, the leads you haven't checked out yet?" Honey Lemon asked. "What about them?"

"There's one that's looking like it might lead somewhere," he said, "but I don't have high hopes."

"Hey, that's what we specialize in," Wasabi said, "hopeless cases!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Fred all but shouted into the communicator, and before anyone could stop him, he launched himself up and out of the driveway, landing on a nearby rooftop. Hiro sighed heavily.

"Just give him the direction on his display so he knows where he's going," Hiro asked Baymax, before climbing onto the android's back. "Just keep your eyes peeled everyone. Any little thing could help."

"Got it." Gogo was the next to go, speeding off down the allyway. Nodding at the others, Aria studied the map on her display, before taking off herself. It was easy enough to climb to a respectable altitude with her powers, setting herself down on a low skyscraper's rooftop. Following her directions, she sprinted off in the direction of the closest red zone. Whenever she reached the edge of one rooftop, she continued on running, her feet setting down in midair like there was some invisible walkway between roofs.

It was a strange sensation, using her powers like this again. She hadn't been this airborn in so long, but it was oddly satisfying. Like stretching out your legs after being seated for a long time, or uncurling yourself after a nap. She was a tad bit rusty, sure, but even after not having done this in over a year, she still had great control over it. She was pretty much remastered it after only a few minutes of practice.

The zone she'd been told to assess per Baymax's instructions was a partially demolished neighborhood on the west end. The old freeway overpass, long-since disused and forgotten, loomed over the short-stack buildings, crumbling with age. Keeping high, she avoided the unsavory characters below, while still being able to eavesdrop on any and all illicit conversations remotely via her helmet's enhanced surveillance capabilities. She'd already tuned into several conversations, and they were either run of the mill illegal, drug dealing or the like, or were creepily innocuous. Nothing so far that was bringing up any red flags.

"I think I've got something," Gogo could be heard whispering over the communicator. The mini-map in the corner of Aria's display showed the blip that represented Gogo's location about 15 blocks east of her.

"What's happening?" Hiro asked, his blip on the other side of the city.

"It's two guys, one of 'em's talking about some kind of meet up," she said, her voice almost too quiet to hear. "Like, I dunno, a showcase or something. There's a lot of 'interest', he says, a lot of buyers will be there."

"Keep on him, Hiro commanded, "try to figure out where and when, and don't lose him!"

"Not a problem."

"Aria, Wasabi, you two are closest, follow Gogo for backup." Nodding to herself, Aria followed his instructions, chancing her direction and speeding off towards Gogo's location. Wasabi arrived there first, but she wasn't far behind him, and she could see the two peering over the edge of a high-sitting fire escape at the little meeting going on below. When Gogo noticed movement out of the corner of her eye, she turned and saw Aria approaching, and held a finger to her lips. They had to be silent to avoid being spotted.

"…Just bring the stuff Fage gave you. You know Boss's gonna be there," the two below them could be heard saying over Aria's surveillance comm.

"All this sellin' and resellin' and buy-backin' is real fishy," the other said, the smaller of the two men. "Can't she just keep it if she wants to sell it and buy it back?"

"Man, you're too stupid to understand what Boss wants. You and Fage are both morons."

"Don't let Fage hear you sayin' that…" The two of them began walking further into the maze of alleyways below, and just like that, Gogo was swinging herself up from the fire escape to the rooftop, Wasabi scrabbling up after her. Aria followed, letting herself lose a little altitude to follow the two men closer.

"Hiro, you and Baymax need to get over here!" Aria heard Gogo hiss into the communicator. "Baymax needs to get a scan on these guys."

"We're coming as fast as possible," he replied, sounding frazzled again. "Just stay on 'em!"

"Aria, get closer and see if you can keep them from disappearing inside a building," Gogo said, to which Aria dutifully obeyed. Staying several yards away, Aria set her feet down on the street behind them, and kept close, still listening in on their conversation.

"…And what about this plan Fage keeps babblin' on about?" the smaller man asked, "keeps sayin' Boss and him gonna start phase two or whatever soon." This earned a slap across the back of the head from the taller man, who paused in the middle of the dark alley.

"Don't fuckin' talk about that!" he snarled, his voice still hushed. "You don't know nothin'! Don't talk about shit you know nothin' about!"

"Alright, alright, damn!" Continuing on, Aria peeked around the next corner, and momentarily panicked when she saw the two approach what appeared to be a solid steel door. It was situated behind a dumpster and several propped up ply boards, and Aria wouldn't have even seen it if the two hadn't stopped in front of it and pushed the boards out of the way. The larger man took out a key and shoved it into what looked like an industrial lock.

"They're gonna be untrackable in there!" Aria heard Wasabi fret over the communicator, and thinking fast, Aria stuck her hand out, and focused on the metal in the lock's mechanism. Holding it static, the man found that his key refused to turn in the lock, and yanked it back out.

"Dumb ass key," he mumbled, jamming it back in and turning more forcefully. Aria felt the mechanism strain against her control of it, and she found herself concentrating desperately to keep it from turning. But from this distance, such a small target was difficult to control, and the man was able to finally wrench the key into position and unlock the heavy steel door. "Finally!" he laughed, throwing the door open, and the two of them filed in, closing and locking it behind them.

"Damn it!" Gogo swore, and Aria peered upwards, to where she and Wasabi were leaning over the edge of the building.

"I'm sorry," Aria apologized, "I couldn't keep the lock from turning."

"What's happening?" Hiro asked, his blip now only a few blocks away.

"The two of them disappeared inside one of these buildings," Gogo answered, her and Wasabi climbing down the fire escape. Finally coming out into the open, Aria cautiously approached the door, inspecting it. Just as Baymax and Hiro arrived and touched down in the alley, she placed her hand on the cool steel, and tried to get a feeling of how thick it was.

"What is this building?" Hiro asked, climbing from Baymax's back.

"Looks like just some old apartment building," Gogo answered. The room beyond the door wasn't metal, it was concrete and wood, but Aria could definitely feel the pull of other, larger metal structures beyond it.

"I think this is a parking garage," she said, placing her other hand on the surface. "I'm pretty sure there's cars in there."

"Is there another way in?" Wasabi asked, but Aria realized they wouldn't need another way in. Putting her hand over the large, industrial lock, she internally tinkered with the mechanism, and finally heard the tell-tale click of it unlocking. The others fell silent as she grinned back at them.

"This way's fine with me," she said, reaching for the handle, and gingerly easing the door open. The room on the other side of the door was dark, but quiet; the two men must have been out of earshot of the door by then.

"This doesn't seem like the best idea," Wasabi said, putting his hand on Aria's shoulder. "You don't know what's on the other side, you don't know if those guys are armed, you just don't know." Gogo said nothing, but Aria thought she saw a subtle head nod. She hesitated; Wasabi was prone to needless worrying and fretting, but if Gogo also thought it was a bad idea, then it probably was.

But one of them didn't particularly care what the others thought about the safety of the situation. Hiro brushed past Aria, somewhat rudely nudging her aside, and he slipped through the cracked door into the darkness beyond. As he did so, he pressed something on the outside of his helmet, and Aria heard a faint mechanical blip; he must've turned on the night vision capabilities.

"Hiro, wait," she whispered, grabbing for his sleeve, but missing. She stumbled into the dark after him, scrambling to find the same button on her own helmet. It had been so long since she'd been in uniform, though, that she couldn't remember which switch it was, and found herself bumbling with the controls on her helmet in the dark. She was afraid to call out to him again, for fear of alerting the men they were following, but she really couldn't see a thing! "Hiro," she breathed, stumbling further into the dark.

There was a few more moments of tense, dark silence, before Aria finally found the correct switch. Feeling relieved, she switched night vision on, and immediately, the configuration of the display in front of her eyes changed, and she was able to see once more. Though, in that same moment, it suddenly dawned on her that the silence enveloping her was more than just eerie; it was wrong. Shouldn't she have been hearing the two men's conversations from inside the garage? Or, at least any footsteps? Just as the scene in front of her illuminated, she was greeted by the answer to that strange query.

"Hiro!" she gasped, her spine going rigid. The boy that stood not ten feet from her froze as they both heard the ominous click of the safety of a gun being removed. The taller of the two men they'd trailed stood behind him, having snuck up on Hiro, while the shorter was not far off, partially obscured by several parked cars. Several feet behind her, Aria was aware of the steel door being nudged open as inconspicuously as possible.

"It's real cute that you thought we didn't know you were following us," the man with the gun said. Hiro was still, but Aria noticed his hands clench slightly. Another click echoed strangely in the parking garage, and Aria's eyes flickered to the smaller man and his gun. He kept swinging his weapon between the two of them, as if he couldn't decide who was a bigger threat, the stringy boy or the boyish girl. He seemed to finally settle on Aria.

"How'd you get in the door?" The smaller man demanded. He was turned to Aria, so she assumed he was asking her. "Fage don't let just anyone have the keys!"

"Hey, shuddup," the taller man shouted, nudging the gun forward, tapping Hiro on the back of the neck. He flinched slightly at this. "I'm asking the questions. Or…lack of questions." He paused, before muttering several swears. "It doesn't matter! I don't make a habit of killin' kids, but the last thing any of us needs is nosy types like you!" Aria could feel the tension on the taller man's trigger, and without moving, so as not to startle the other, jumpier man into shooting his own gun, she focused in on that trigger, and held it firm. Just like before, such a precise manipulation was proving difficult, but this time, it was much more important that Aria keep her focus.

So, it didn't really help when one of Gogo's disks came flying right beside her ear, nearly hitting her. The little yellow disk collided with the man's wrist, causing his gun to go flying. In the same instant, the smaller man fired, but with Hiro out of immediate danger, Aria was able to turn and deflect the bullet with a sweeping gesture. There was a bang and a hiss as the deflected bullet hit one of the cars, and a car alarm started to go off. Looking back to Hiro and the taller man, she saw the latter scrambling for his gun, and Hiro scrambling away.

"Baymax!" he called, and the armor-clad android burst through the unlocked door.

"Shit, it's those punks in the armor!" the smaller man said, already weaving his through the cars. With dim street-lamp-light streaming into the garage through the open steel door, Hiro lunged towards Baymax, ready to swing himself up onto the robot's back. But out of the corner of her eye, Aria saw the tall man finally reach his weapon. Before she could rip the gun from his hands, he fired at Hiro.

"Hiro!" Aria heard Gogo shout at him in warning, but there was no way for him to move out of the way in time. Aria barely had the time to divert the bullet's course; she was magnetic, but damn do bullets move fast. It's flight path curved just in time, missing Hiro by inches, and imbedded itself into another nearby car. Whipping back around, Aria yanked the gun from the assailant's hand, and slammed it as hard as she could into the opposite wall.

There was a long moment of stillness. No one moved, no one dared to breath. Looking at Hiro, Aria could see his eyes were wide behind his helmet. She felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest.

The moment was shattered, however, as the second car hit by a bullet started belching out smoke. She must've hit the radiator. There several loud popping noises, and all four of the gang standing beside it, minus Baymax of course, jumped as the hood was forced open by the pressure of the steam being expelled. Aria stumbled away from the boiling hot steam before it could fry her under her armor, and ended up with her back to Baymax, beside a sputtering Gogo. And, in the confusion of the sudden automobile meltdown, the taller man was able to make his escape.

"Baymax! C'mon!" she heard Hiro shout, punctuating each word with a cough.

"My sensors appear to be over heated by the environmental temperatures," Baymax said, blinking behind his helmet. "I will need to return to ambient temperatures for my sensors to function properly."

"What!?" Aria couldn't take it anymore, and relented, making her way back out into the alley way. She yanked her helmet off and let it clatter to the ground, and leaned down with her hands on her knees, sucking in clean, cool night air. Gogo and Wasabi followed suit.

"Are you guys…alright?" she gasped, steam and smoke still pouring out of the open door. Hiro was through before the others could answer, and in a much more violent fashion than Aria, tanked his helmet off and threw it on the ground.

"What the hell was that!?" he asked, rounding on his three comrades, as Baymax shuffled his way out into the open. Aria was startled by his outburst, and for the moment, could say nothing. She straightened up, a hand still pressed to her chest as he continued. "You just had to hit another car, didn't you?" This was flung directly at Aria, and again she flinched. Why was he mad at her?

"Whoa, whoa," Wasabi said, reaching out to put a hand on Hiro's shoulder, but the younger boy shoved him away. "She just saved your life!"

"We all kinda did," Gogo said, crossing her arms.

"You let them get away!" Hiro replied, throwing his arm out towards the smoke rising from the doorway. "You could have done anything with that bullet! You're a god damn magnet, and you choose to hit a car!?"

"How dare you!" Aria snapped back. He'd pushed too far, and had just crossed a line. "I'm not just some stupid magnet, you ass, I saved your life! Wasabi told you not to go in there and if it wasn't for me and Gogo, you'd have one hell of a hole in your head right now!" Even with her shorter stature, she was staring Hiro down with the same ferocity he was throwing at her, two fold. But his scowl didn't crumble. He didn't slump and apologize. He exhaled through his nose, not unlike the stubborn-ass bull he was acting like right now, and turned from the three of them.

"The first good lead I see in months, MONTHS! And you three screw it up!" Baymax was looking between them all back and forth, as if watching a tennis match. "THIS is why I never invited you all to come along before," he snarled, glaring at Aria as he climbed onto Baymax's back.

"Hiro, stop!" Aria shouted, but it was no use. He and Baymax had once again taken off. And without him, the alley grew quiet. "…what a child," she muttered.

"He does this a lot," Gogo said, cocking an eyebrow at the younger girl.

"Yeah, he left us on a quarantined Island once," Wasabi added, nodding. Gogo walked over to where Hiro had thrown his helmet, and picked it up; the display was badly cracked.

"What an idiot," she laughed, though there was no humor behind it. She glanced at Aria, giving her a somewhat pitying look. "…He's just angry right now. He didn't really mean any of it." She knew Gogo was referring to the magnet comment, but Aria just looked away instead of replying. She didn't really want to talk about it anymore.

"Let's just go home."


	6. Chapter Six - Second Breach

Sorry for the long delays between chapters. If anyone is even still reading this series, haha! I do fully intend to finish it out to the end, but it's undergoing a bit of a revamp, a very small revamp, so bear with me. I may be changing a few minor things here and there, but nothing too big.

I've just switched universities, so updates may continue to be a bit slow, but I promise to have another chapter up within the next two weeks, maybe sooner. We'll see. I've fallen back in love with this story, so you may see the next chapter out as early as this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled!

And finally, sorry this chapter is so short. I needed to get it out of the way; only one or two more 'hump' chapters before we get into the thick of the actions! Yee, I'm so excited to unveil what the main plot is! I think y'all are gonna love it!

* * *

"Er…Aria?"

It was actually a shock when Finn used Aria's actual name, and for once, she looked up when he addressed her, instead of awkwardly brushing him off. Quickly wiping her eyes on the back of her sleeve, she tried her hardest not to appear as if she'd just been crying, but it was difficult. She didn't want to end up as that weird girl that cried alone on Campus.

"What?" she said, a little too brusquely, hiding the tremble in her voice.

"Are you okay?" Finn set his backpack on the ground and sat beside Aria on the little wrought-iron bench. She didn't stop herself from heaving an exasperated sigh, and shook her head.

"I'm fine," she lied, very obviously. Finn paused. He looked like he was mulling over the words in his head, but Aria knew that couldn't really be the case…could it?

"Did anything of yours get taken this time?" he asked. Aria shook her head. "Well, that's good. One of my buddies had some of his stuff stolen, but nothing too important I guess, he didn't seem too busted up about it." He tried for a smile, but when Aria didn't return it, didn't even look at him, he let it drop. He sighed as well, hanging his head. "…But yeah. It's…wow. Twice in a year."

"Yeah," she croaked, feeling stupid, sitting here with someone she disliked, trying hard not to sob her eyes out. At least Finn wasn't trying to make a joke out of any of it…yet.

"So, what's got you so upset, then?" he asked, trying to get a good look at Aria's red and puffy face. "If nothing of yours was stolen last night, that's a good thing, right?"

"…A bunch of Hiro's stuff was stolen again," she finally managed to choke out, swallowing hard. "Mostly just data this time. Really important data." She pressed the palm of her hand to her mouth, squeezing her eyes shut as a few tears streaked down her cheeks. Finn looked rather worried at this, and at first extended an arm out, like he was going to encase her in an awkward side-hug, but at the last second, he thought better of it; he knew he came on a little strong sometimes, and now was perhaps not the best time for an overtly familiar contact like that. Floundering for a moment, he just ended up patting her back awkwardly.

"Oh, the guy who pledged you, right?" he asked. Aria immediately whipped her head up, a look of fire in her eye and her mouth open to start spitting vitriol; she got in on her own merits, damn it! She didn't need Hiro Hamada's help to get into SFIT! But all that came out was a gush of empty air, and she visibly deflated, slumping back down. She didn't have the energy to get mad at an idiot, not twice in one day.

"He was more than that," she said, "he was…a friend. I guess." She drew a ragged breath. "But now he's…I don't know. I tried to help him, but I guess he just hates me now!" Her voice cracked on the last syllable, lifting an octave, and she dropped her head to her hands. "He's such a moron! I tried, damnit, I was just trying to help!"

"Whoa, whoa, Ari…a," Finn finished, reminding himself that now was not the time for nicknames. This time he set his hand on her shoulder and left it there. "It's okay…he got mad at you? For what, helping?"

"I dunno, being in the way I guess!" She was full on crying now, her sense of shame apparently evaporating at the memory of her altercation with Hiro that morning. "T-told me to just 'stop making things worse'!"

"How could you have made things worse?" Finn asked, "It's not like you broke into the school and took his stuff."

"I know!" For once it seemed, Finn was making sense. She almost felt like congratulating him for not saying the wrong thing. "He's been so stressed, and he blames me for…for screwing something up yesterday night, and it w-wasn't my fault, and I just-"

"Aria, hey!" Holding his hands up to stop her, Finn cut her off. "You don't have to convince me! I'm on your side!" She looked up at him then, smiling down at her reassuringly, and it just made her want to burst out crying even harder. Why wasn't Hiro this understanding? Why was he acting like such a jerk? Was this just how he was now?

"Maybe I AM making things worse, though," she said, slightly calmer now than before. "Maybe it…the thing, maybe it was my fault? How can you be on my side when you don't even know what's been happening?"

"I know that's not true," Finn said, as if it were common-knowledge fact. She sniffled and just stared at him, waiting for him to continue. "Dude, Aria, you never take any of my crap," he said, smiling kindly. "You're always so focused and down to Earth, every time I see you it's like you've got places to be, and you know exactly what you're doing! I'm just some idiot floundering around campus, you know." He cocked an eyebrow self-deprecatingly, and almost made Aria laugh. "I know you're right because it's got you so upset. You seem to know what you're doing, Aria. If he can't see than, then he's the one that's wrong." Aria was silent for a long moment. Her eyes shifted from him, to her hands, to the pavement below her feet. A very small smile ghosted across her face.

"You are just some idiot floundering around campus," she said quietly, and this elicited a very boisterous laugh from the blonde sitting next to her.

"Got you to smile!" he said, nudging her side slightly.

"Barely."

"Barely's a foot in the door!" Standing and shouldering his bag again, Finn held his hand out to Aria, to help her to her feet. "C'mon, I'd hate to just leave you here to mope. You need some coffee." Aria glanced at his outstretched hand, thinking that it reminded her of Hiro helping her to her feet two evenings ago in his room. But instead of a distracted and angsty ball of nerves on the other end, this hand was attached to someone who seemed, for better or worse, determined to show her he was on her side of things. He was annoying, and pushy, and damn idiotic at times, but right now, a little ray of kindness was something Aria desperately needed. And she sure as hell wasn't getting it from Hiro.

She let Finn take her hand and pull her to her feet, and the two made their way across campus. And she had to admit, tuning out her own dour thoughts and just listening to Finn ramble endlessly about nothing was a good way to clear her head. For now, at least.

"…So, yeah," he said, shrugging slightly at her. "I don't know if it's something you'd be interested in going to, but they're having this, like, security conference tomorrow night. You know, to discuss what they're gonna do about any more break-ins. Students are welcome to attend, so…" Aria perked up slightly at this, the wheels in her head slowly turning. Maybe, if she went, she could get a little bit better idea of what kind of robbery they were up against. Then, maybe she wouldn't be so 'in the way' of Hiro all the time. It was a hope, at least.

"I want to go," she said without thinking, more to herself than to Finn, but Finn none the less smiled, running his hand through his hair.

"Great!" he said, stepping forward and holding the door to the campus coffee shop open for Aria. "It starts at 8 tomorrow, do you wanna meet up at the conference hall right then, or do you like…I dunno, wanna meet up before? We could grab dinner beforehand if you want…?" Aria was still a little caught up in her own thoughts as Finn obviously was grasping at ways to get her out on a date, and as a result, she only really heard half of what he said.

"Eight?" she asked absent mindedly. "Eight, huh? Yeah, eight's good I think." Finn looked a little defeated at that, but his smile didn't vanish. He just coughed awkwardly, standing beside her in line.

"Right," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. Of course, Aria remained oblivious. So much so, in fact, that she didn't even protest when Finn automatically paid for both of their orders. Sitting down with him at one of the little tables by the front window, she took a sip of her latte, and mentally remarked that Aunt Cass' coffee could run circles around this one.

As Finn picked the conversation back up, Aria offered only minimal participation, but that seemed like more than enough to satisfy the chatty 20 year old, and they sat and sipped for a while. A long while. In fact, it wasn't until Aria caught sight of a shock of purple among black hair did she finally check her phone and see than an hour had passed. And in the same moment, Gogo, who's been walking by, spied Aria through the window, and stopped.

"Aria?" she asked, poking her head into the shop, taking in a very peculiar scene; Aria with puffy red rings around her eyes and streaky makeup, sitting with a blonde 'dude-bro' type guy Gogo had never seen before, having coffee, seemingly together. Gogo wasn't the type to jump to hasty conclusions, but this was…more than a little odd.

"Gogo!" Standing, Aria waved her over, smiling slightly. "Have you heard about that security conference tomorrow?"

"I have," the older girl said, walking over, her arms crossed.

"Are you going?"

"I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

"Er-" Finn tried to interject, wanting to assert that he and Aria were going…together. But, finding sense once more, decided against it. Dropping the issue, he sat back, and took a long drink of his now cold Americano, wondering if this was a lost-cause.

Gogo shot the boy a quizzical look, before continuing. "Uh, right…anyway, I wasn't gonna go, but I wanted to talk to you about what happened. Last night, and I'm not talking about the robbery."

"Oh…right." Shifting slightly, Aria grabbed her bag, and shot Finn an apologetic look. "I've got to go, Finn, but, I'll see you tomorrow at eight."

"Right, eight." Nodding, Aria rushed out after Gogo, the two girls walking close as they made their way out of the coffee shop. "So, what about last night?"

"What was that?" Gogo gave Aria one of her looks, raising an eyebrow, and she just shrugged.

"What was what?"

"Was that a date?" Gogo stabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the coffee shop behind them, and at the word 'date', Aria bristled.

"Date?" she almost laughed, though rather bitterly. "Ha! Please. The last date I was on was…months ago." She thought back to her and Hiro's last proper video-chat-date, and sighed. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, before Gogo snapped her fingers in front of Aria's face.

"Earth to Aria," she said, "come back to me, Aria!"

"Sorry." She shook her head to clear herself of that thought. Couldn't think about Hiro now. Not when she'd just stopped crying over him and his ass-hole-ish-ness. "But, no. Finn is…a friend? Kinda. He's not a jerk, at least." The older girl still gave her a skeptical look, but let it go.

"Whatever you say," she shrugged, "anyway, I wanted to talk to you about those two thugs from last night."

"Yeah? What about 'em?"

"They were talking about someone named Fage, and someone else, Boss." She brushed the hair from her eyes, her eyebrows set together low on her forehead. "Just because we lost them yesterday doesn't mean the lead is dead. In fact, I suspect this is as much as Hiro's found out on his own all these months."

"I figured so too," Aria replied, "but what can we do now? Baymax may have gotten a scan on them, but…I don't think Hiro's going to want us 'interfering' with his investigation again." The two girls had made their way through Campus, and Aria halted then, as they were halfway over a bridge, over the koi pond in the middle of campus. Through the now-bare branches of the cherry blossom trees, the robotics lab could be seen, and Aria's gaze lingered on the giant glass and steel structure. "Did you get a chance to talk to him this morning?' she asked, wondering if Hiro's anger had been directed at anyone who's seen him, or if it was exclusively at Aria. But Gogo scoffed at this, tossing her head to the side.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked, leaning against the railing of the bridge. "I wouldn't go near him right now. Not after tonight. Not after the break in. I wouldn't touch that boy with a ten-foot pole." She'd taken her phone out to check her text messages, but stopped when she saw the desolate expression Aria wore. "…You went there, though," she correctly deduced, and Aria just nodded. Sighing heavily, Gogo ran her gloved hand through her hair, and rolled her eyes. "Why would you do that? After last night? You knew he was in a bad mood, and now that we've been broken into again, you thought maybe he'd magically be in a better mood?"

"I didn't think he'd be so…"

"What, upset?"

"Angry. At me." Aria shuffled her feet slightly, resolving not to cry again, but her eyes were feeling a little wet already. "He was acting like it was my fault his data was taken. Like…like I'd caused it." Her eyes lifted to look at Gogo, her look pleading. "It's not my fault, though. I mean, how could it be?"

"Of course it's not," Gogo huffed, crossing her arms. "Aria, I told you. He's under an insane amount of pressure right now. He's not being himself-"

"That's no excuse!" she tried to say, but Gogo held a hand up, much calmer than the younger girl.

"No, but listen-"

"He's just being irrational!" she continued, throwing her hands up. "Like you said, he's such a child, he's-!"

"-He's grieving the loss of his data like he grieved for Tadashi." Those words hung in the air heavy between the two of them, with Aria's fists unclenching slowly, her anger deflating once more. She was left just staring at a sullen-looking Gogo, who seemed to not be able to hold the stare that long. She looked away. "Baymax was Tadashi's brain-child. He worked so hard on him, and when he died, the only thing that seemed to help Hiro find any purpose was working on the project. And now what's happened? Most of it is gone. The rest is ruined." The more Gogo spoke, the more Aria felt like sinking deeper and deeper into the ground. "Aria, this isn't just some material object he's lost. It's like losing Tadashi all over again."

"…But…he still has Baymax," Aria squeaked, feeling terrible the moment the words were out of her mouth.

"And that's about all he has." Gogo paused. "…And us. And right now, it's probably best if we give him his space. He's lashing out right now, so we'll stay at arm's length. Be there when he finally wants us. When he needs us." Reaching out, she punched Aria in the shoulder, though it wasn't hard; coming from Gogo, it was the closest thing to a hug she'd give.

"And if he doesn't come around?" Aria asked?

"He will. He always does." Straightening up, she beckoned for Aria to follow. "And in the meantime, we can do a bit of our own recon. Have something to show him when he's more receptive to it."

"But, the fact still stands," Aria said, "Baymax has the scans, and I doubt Hiro will hand them over to us willingly."

"So…we take them." Gogo and Aria had made their way to the edge of Campus, to the parking lot, and the elder girl laid her hand on the handlebars of an impressively well-kept motorcycle. Aria's eyebrows shot up her forehead, and when she didn't immediately hop on the vehicle with Gogo, she rolled her eyes once more. "Look, Hiro's likely gonna be here on campus with the police all day. That means Baymax is at home, and so's all his backed-up data. He won't even know we've been there."

"Unless Baymax tells him," Aria said, "and you know Baymax will tell him."

"So, we just wipe his memory of today. C'mon, you said you wanted to follow this lead with me; so help me follow it!" She swung her leg over the bike, and tossed her helmet to Aria, who only just barely caught it.

"Hiro will know," Aria fretted, more to herself than to Gogo, but still, she clipped the helmet on, and climbed onto the back of the bike. She was only just able to cling to Gogo's back as the bike lurched to life, and off they sped.

* * *

"Good afternoon Gogo, Aria." Baymax waved to the two girls that stood before him after he inflated from his charging unit. His eyes blinked slowly. "Where is Hiro?"

"He's still at school," Aria said, looking around, searching for the correct cord in the mess of cables that littered the garage floor.

"Shouldn't you also be at school, Aria?" Baymax asked, watching her inspect the ends of several cables, tossing them all away as she judged them to be incorrect. "My database indicates that you are skipping your 'Theoretical Principals of Engineering' lecture." Gogo chuckled at this, and Aria straightened up, puzzled.

"Hiro programmed my schedule into you?" she asked, and paused. "Awww. That's so sweet…that little jerk." She went back to searching, before Gogo called her over.

"Got it," she announced, and motioned for Baymax to bend down closer. Taking hold of his head, she blugged him into Hiro's main computer, and Aria sat down just as Baymax's main files appeared in the imports database. Clicking in, she easily guessed Hiro's first two passwords (Mochi, and TD1995) but the third had her stumped, until Gogo elbowed her out of the way, typing a few numbers on the keypad. Her guess checked out, and they were in.

"What was it?" Aria asked, clicking through the files. "I tried his middle name, Tadashi's middle name, a few combinations of his student number-"

"It was your birthday," Gogo said, her eyes flickering across the screen as they searched for Baymax's scan files. This made Aria's heart ache again, and she had to keep herself from saying anything this time. He was a jerk, remember? He was being a jerk! And jerks aren't cute!

"Here they are," Aria finally announced, before whipping out her flashdrive, and copying several files over.

"You are accessing the scans and audio and video files from last night," Baymax observed, watching the two sift through his programming.

"Sorry, big guy," Gogo said pointing out several other files she wanted copied over. "But…you're not gonna remember any of this."

"I do not 'remember' anything," Baymax corrected, "I catalogue everything my sensors perceive for future reference."

"Well, you won't be cataloguing any of this." Straightening up, she ushered him to stand back in his charge, before nodding over her shoulder at Aria. The latter nodded back, before dragging several icons over to the trash bin, and clearing the bin out. That same moment, Baymax went static, before his eyes closed, and he deflated back into his charging station. As the contraption closed in around him, Gogo smiled. "Sweet dreams." She looked back at Aria, and motioned for them to go. "C'mon, we got what we need. We can go back to my place and look it over."

"Hold on a sec." Clicking through a few more folders, Aria copied several file stacks over, before closing out the program and standing. Following Gogo out quickly, they pulled the garage shut behind them, and just like that, they were out of the alley and gone.

* * *

Aria clicked the 'replay' button for the third time, and with tired eyes, rewatched the footage from last night through Baymax's eyes. By now, she could have described every detail of the scene with her eyes closed, and still, there wasn't anything worth remembering that she didn't already remember first hand. Gogo paced behind her.

"Gogo, we have the scans," Aria said, stifling a yawn as she spoke, "we can go off of that." While Gogo's attention was elsewhere, Aria clicked away from the media player, bringing up the tab she'd been working on, on and off all night. Getting a few more lines down, she yawned again.

"There's gatta be more than that, though." The older girl was mumbling as she paced, and she waved at Aria. "Play it again."

"Watch it on your phone, I'm working on something." Disregarding Gogo's command, she placed a few more lines, rearranging some of Hiro's previous work. Gogo scoffed and looked over, only to stare in confusion at what Aria was doing.

"What are you doing?" she asked, walking over and leaning down over the back of the chair to watch the lines of code type out on the screen in front of the two of them.

"Rewriting some of this code," Aria yawned, and she rubbed at her eye.

"Since when do you know how to write code?" Gogo asked incredulously.

"Okay, I did learn stuff at my community college," Aria retorted, somewhat defensively. "I took a few coding classes actually. And one of my classes this summer is introduction to high level code reassignment and applications." Clicking over to an auxiliary tab, she transferred her new lines into the framework of the copied version of Hiro's existing program. Gogo watched as she clicked back and forth, a bit mystified with the purpose of rewriting a section of Baymax's coding. Her bachelor's and master's degrees had been mechanical engineering; the coding side of it had always flown way over her head. And while Aria was struggling a bit to figure out what went where, and she was nowhere near as efficient with it as Tadashi or Hiro had been, but eventually, she did sit back, cracking her knuckles. "Done. …I think."

"Okay, so…what did you do?" Gogo cocked an eyebrow, and watched as Aria pulled a charger and her phone from her bag, and connected it to her laptop. It took a while for the program to save and transfer, but when it did, a little solid-white icon appeared on her home-screen; it looked pretty anonymous, but it was an app none the less.

"It doesn't have an icon yet," Aria apologized, clicking the little white square. "And it's not gonna look very good; Hiro's code is formatted for computer and display screens, not phones. But it should work okay for now." As she clicked it open, a white screen popped up. After a moment to load, a grid finally appeared over the white, with coordinates lining the edges of the screen. The non-grid section at the bottom was extremely jumbled and ill-formatted, but it appeared to be trying to load the person icon Baymax used to identify his scans. More information popped up in the jumble, illegible, but as it did, so did a little red blip on the grid. "…Ta-da."

"It's…a map?" Gogo realized, taking the phone from Aria. Scrolling out with some difficulty, the grin enlarged to show all of San Fransokyo, a crude, pixilated mass on the grid, but once it scrolled out enough, another red blip popped up in a different part of town. "It's the scans," she said, smiling slightly.

"At first I was looking for a way to remotely hack into Baymax's display capabilities so we'd have the maps on our helmets," Aria said, "But…I don't know how to remotely log into other servers. And even if I did, I don't think there'd be a way to do it without alerting Baymax or Hiro. I mean, Hiro could probably figure out a way to do it, but definitely not me." She laughed nervously. "But then I realized, I don't need to do that, as long as I can find a way to get the map and the scans to load on something else, like a phone, in real time."

"So you're saying this is tracking those two guys? Like, right now?"

"It should be," Aria said. "We'd just need to reload to get it to accurately reflect their exact location. I didn't know how to code it to do that on it's own." Gogo smiled, tossing the phone back to Aria.

"Aria, you are a genius," she praised, and while she knew Gogo hadn't meant it seriously, she still did like the sound of the compliment. "Tomorrow, after the security conference, we'll take it out on it's maiden voyage."


End file.
